(Times of Israel) Avi Issacharoff - A Hamas leader currently living in Turkey is believed to be behind the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank last week, an Israeli security official said Thursday Saleh al-Arouri - a former West Bank resident deported after serving a prison sentence in Israel, who is now a leading figure in Hamas overseas operations - is thought to have been a key figure for years in attempts to initiate terror attacks in the West Bank, funding and arranging the training of terror cells. "I have no doubt that al-Arouri was connected to the act," the official said. There is an increasing belief in the Israeli security services that the kidnapping was directed by Hamas' overseas hierarchy. Al-Arouri is answerable to Hamas' political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal. "For Hamas, there is one explicit instruction, and that is to continue to kidnap Israelis."
2014-06-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive